How to Leverage Social Media for Labor Day Sales

Summer is coming to a close and many shops are already planning for the holiday season. But before getting lost in all that tinsel, there’s one more big sales opportunity this summer—Labor Day weekend!

If you haven’t already, put some time aside to create a social media marketing strategy for Labor Day. So many U.S. consumers have the “well, it was on sale so I had to” mentality, so you want to make sure you’re not missing out on great opportunities to clear the shelves of last season’s items and get ready to bring in new fall inventory.

While we’re sure you’d prefer to be home with friends and family, or at the beach on a day actually dedicated to your hard work, you may have already discovered that there’s no rest for the (retail) weary. Hang in there though, and use these tips to leverage social media in order to boost your Labor Day sales! It might make your manic weekend well worth it!

1. Provide Flash Sales and Limited Time Offers

Labor Day holiday weekend and sales go together like peanut butter and jelly… or at least in the consumer’s mind they do. Use social media marketing tools to promote any sales that you have going on, with images, photos and/or videos. Pull together quality content to help promote the sale and any specific items that should be featured. Social media is all about imagery, sharing, and engagement, which is why sharing lots of content in this space will help drive sales.

Some great sale types include deals of the day, coupons, doorbusters, and enter to wins. When posting these offers on social media, one thing to remember is to ENGAGE your audience.

What do we mean by that?

Don’t just post a picture of your ad. Instead, ask questions, share content, build excitement, or do a countdown. Getting viewers to interact with you on social media will increase the likelihood that their friends will also see your post, ultimately extending your reach.

2. Promote Hashtags

Before the Twitterverse, the hashtag was more commonly known as the pound sign. Now, however, this symbol is a strong social media marketing tool that you simply cannot overlook.

What is a Hashtag? It’s a word or phrase preceded by a pound sign (#) and used to identify messages on a specific topic. You’ll also notice that there are no spaces within a hashtag. It helps with categorizing posts around a particular topic.

For example, the Travel Channel includes a small #TravelChannelLive in the bottom corner of all their TV shows to encourage viewers to start a conversation about their shows on social media. While the hashtag rose to fame on Twitter, it is now widely used on Facebook and Instagram as well. If someone goes to one of these social media sites and searches for #TravelChannelLive, all posts that include that hashtag will show up. Powerful stuff!

It’s simple to get your business involved in the fun and interactive life of hashtags; all you have to do is create one that makes sense! If you’re looking to specifically boost sales over the Labor Day holiday weekend, think about what your clients can do over the weekend that involves USING your product or service. In an effort to make the hashtag more likely to be used, consider keeping your company or brand name out of it. Some of the most popular hashtags don’t include brand names. Take KitKat’s #HaveABreak, a play on their tagline “Give me a break,” or TMobile’s #DataStrong.

In true Labor Day grilling tradition, another great example comes from Nathan’s Famous Hotdogs. As part of National Hot Dog Month, Nathan’s took to social media to demand a hot dog emoji. Instead of #NathansHotDogEmoji, they simply promoted #HotDogEmoji, making it more likely that people would join in on the passionate uproar for the emoji icon.

Once you’ve created your hashtag, start promoting it! Consumers are always looking for the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) factor, so give them a reason to use your hashtag. If you’re a grill company, promote incentives on social media like “use hashtag #BBQWeekend to enter to win a grilling prize pack” or “show us your #BBQWeekend to receive 15% off your purchase.”

3. Use Word of Mouth Marketing

There’s nothing wrong with getting some extra promotion from your best marketing tool—your happy customers! Never underestimate the power of word of mouth marketing. When real people get behind your brand, it can be a powerful force that can make a world of difference in brand awareness and reputation.

Customer advocates can become your brand’s secret weapon. They are often willing to share your brand’s story, especially if you make it easy and rewarding for them. To nurture that relationship, give them incentives to keep coming back. Promote your Labor Day sales with a “tweet us a picture” or “tag us in your photos to enter to win…” Another great way to expose your brand and big sale is to ask your customers to share the post on their social media. “Share with three friends and get yours free” can be a win-win situation for the customer and brand. The customer can easily share the post, in turn getting a free item, and you’re getting three times as much exposure as you were originally!

According to a study by Nielsen, 92 percent of Americans trust recommendations from family and friends more than any other form of marketing. Take the above scenario,in which your promotion is extended by one of your customers sharing a picture of them using their grill on Facebook. One of their friends may be looking to purchase a grill for the upcoming Labor Day weekend, and by seeing that picture, they may reach out for feedback on the grill. Not only can this person now act as a representative for your brand, but because it’s coming from their friend, they will trust the recommendation much more!

How to Start Your Labor Day Social Media Marketing

Mark your calendar—Labor Day is September 7th. Using the interactive tips above, you can build content around this end of summer event to help carry customers with you into the Fall. If you follow these tips to leverage social media marketing, you’ll be able to effectively take advantage of this opportunity.

Research offers that may be beneficial to your business.

Try flash sales, and limited time offers for the holiday weekend.

Craft a hashtag if it’s applicable to your goals and strategy.

Consider leaving out your brand or business name, and instead making it something fun and relevant!

Harness the word-of-mouth marketing you may be missing out on by involving your customers on social media.

Look at historical information from previous year’s sales to create a baseline for tracking this year and beyond.

This will help you determine what realistic goals would be, so you can make a plan.